Red alert after a ‘crash’ landing near Bo’ness

Bo’ness residents were left baffled on Christmas Day when a mystery object appeared to land on the foreshore.

Police Scotland’s Forth Valley division received a report from a local caller around noon that a parachutist or microlight pilot had landed on the shoreline.

The caller had been concerned that a pilot had run into difficulty and crashed in the area.

Taking to Facebook to appeal for information about the incident, police later stated that they had not received any emergency calls but were devoting resources to establishing whether a crash had, in fact, taken place.

A spokesman for the force said at the time that this included speaking to personnel at local airports.

Several members of the public responded to the query, claiming to have seen the microlight flying over Bo’ness, Skinflats, Grangemouth and Linlithgow.

Others took a less serious approach, with one social media wag commenting “you sure it wasn’t Santa?”

Concern and speculation turned out to be unfounded however, when the police posted at 10.51pm on Christmas Day: “Thank you for the response people.

‘‘It appears this was a false alarm and the microlight pilot was not in any kind of difficulty.”